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I have been very impressed with the work that was being done to include rental units in the MassSave program. It was a hopeful turn of events for a program a bit mired in half-measures on decarbonization dedicated exclusively to home owners.
In some ways the decarbonization portion of MassSave's work (heat pumps) has has devolved into a program to bring air conditioning to the homeowner segment. Most all of the systems being installed in New England are installed with a back up gas furnace or boiler that cuts in and takes over at ~38F. Instead of a commitment to decarbonization, homeowners are committed to gaming their new systems to always be using the cheapest fuel. When it is cold, that fuel is gas. From the standpoint of reducing demand for gas during peak (cold) periods, this is not helpful, from a standpoint of reducing fossil fuel use, this is marginal.
What I found most hopeful about the rental unit program was that it had a better chance of working at actually reducing our fossil fuel dependence. Landlords would be less likely to install dual fuel systems and more likely to use system designs that meet all the heating requirements of their units.
